UNP leadership resorting to media gimmicks in North

Jaffna District parliamentarian Shashikala Maheshwaran has accused the UNP leadership of conducting media gimmicks in the North while keeping her in the dark.

Accusing senior UNP leaders of resorting to low level tactics to woo the Northern voters, the only UNP MP in the North said that she could have got people in Jaffna to protest against their visits while bypassing her.

Moderate peace-loving people in Jaffna alleged that Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was trying to create a rift between the Security Forces and civilians by pointing fingers at the troops over the recent attack on the Udayan newspaper. They said the UNP leader was trying to fan the flames of racism by making allegations against the Security Forces’ personnel over the attack on the Udayan newspaper.

The Udayan newspaper had carried Wickremesinghe’s statement prominently in its Friday’s edition. A Jaffna Citizens’ Committee stalwart said that Wickremesinghe’s statement over the newspaper attack was irresponsible as a full scale investigation is being conducted by the authorities.

He said that the Udayan newspaper was trying to drag the people in Jaffna into another conflict by inciting racism and hatred among communities. They said that the paper published a number of articles inciting hatred and racism among the Tamil community.